Wednesday, 26 February 2014

The Kerala CM’s
Mass Contact Programme for redressing grievances and rooting out corruption has
won international recognition. In this context, the article seeks to evaluate present-day
popular models of grievance redressal and explore the role of Panchayati Raj in
addressing people’s concerns.It is only a few months since the Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, won the United Nations’ Public Service Award for ‘Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service’ for his 2011-12 Mass Contact Programme. According to records of the Kerala Government, the CM visited all districts of the state, imbibed lessons by listening to people’s grievances, collected 5.45 lakh petitions and managed to resolve 2.97 lakh of these within a short duration. A similar exercise was carried out in 2013 as well. The UNDP appreciated the initiative, hailing it as exemplary in strengthening democracy. At the same time, one needs to evaluate whether the initiative, while it brings the politicians closer to the voters, is the best way to approach grievance redressal.

﻿﻿﻿

Mass
Contact Programme 2012: A Broad Picture

Source: Boundless Access:
Kerala’s Tryst with Governance, Department of Information & Public
Relations, Government of Kerala, March 2012, p.32

Inadequacy of Mass Contact
Programme as a Grievance Redressal Mechanism

The table above shows that during the 2011-12 Mass
Contact Programme almost 20 per cent of total households - that is one in every
five households- in Idukki, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Wayanad districts
presented their cases before the Chief Minister. If so many people have to depend
on certain high-ranking individuals to address their grievances, it makes one
ponder upon the extent of progress of democracy in this country. With the ‘Right
of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of
their Grievances Bill, 2011’ still pending in the Parliament, people have no
choice but to depend on a few individuals to address their problems. The
situation thus throws light on the incapacity of institutions of local self
government to address people’s problems.

Need to Strengthen
Panchayati Raj Institutions

In the year that lakhs of people participated in the
Mass Contact Programme to seek redressal of their grievances, Kerala ranked
first in Panchayat Devolution Index (2011-12). In this context, it seems ironic
that Rajiv Gandhi envisioned Panchyati Raj as a systemic solution for
‘responsive administration’, replacing managerial solutions like grievance
redressal mechanisms. At the beginning of his tenure as the Prime Minister, Rajiv
Gandhi was actually in favour of such managerial solutions like the one that
the then District Collector of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra had introduced. The
Collector had brought in a system, similar to that of the Kerala CM’s, wherein
he used to meet the general public in the open under a tree and attempt to
provide immediate disposal of their problems. Despite his earlier
support to such initiatives, Rajiv Gandhi later accepted in the Parliament
that, “At that time...we were looking to a simplification of procedure,
grievance- redressal machinery, single-window clearances, computerisation and
courtesy as the answers to the problems. As we went along, we discovered that a
managerial solution would not do. What was needed was a systemic solution.”Despite it being two decades after Panchyati Raj was introduced as a systemic
solution, it is grievance redressal programmes like the Oommen Chandy’s that have managed to more effectively
address people’s concerns, than institutions of local self government .

Referring to a case that was brought before him which
could actually have been settled at the panchayat level, the Kerala CM said, “How
is it that a complaint that could have been tackled by a local governing body
reached the chief minister’s hand? ...

Alas, an issue that could have easily been solved
didn’t go the way it should have.” If this is the situation in
the state with one of the strongest Panchayati Raj systems in the country, it
is hard to imagine how deplorable the condition in other states would be. We
would not have needed Mass Contact Programmes if there were empowered
Panchayati Raj Institutions in place, with adequate powers devolved to them. Therefore,
it is high time we ponder over the effectiveness of Panchayati Raj Institutions
and take initiatives to empower them so as to facilitate effective delivery of
services to the common man.

*This
is a revised version of the paper published by the author in eSocial Sciences
on 12 July, 2013.

Monday, 24 February 2014

The
idea of globalisation has radically altered the contours of international
economic relationships and economic diplomacy between countries, throwing up
new set of challenges and complexities in the spheres of economy, society,
politics and culture. With rising global connectivity, dependency and market
integration an increasing number of players strive to influence the outcome of
economic relationships; and economic diplomacy therefore has assumed immense
significance and posed new challenges to diplomats around the world and for the
emerging economic power like India. This transformation encompasses an
evolution of modus operandi with widening and deepening dimensions of diplomacy.
In today’s outward-looking, liberal, macro-economic framework, terms like
non-state diplomacy, corporate diplomacy, business diplomacy, NGO diplomacy and
track two diplomacy have found their place in the lexicon of economic
diplomacy. Economic
diplomacy thus has risen to the top of international policy agenda, driven by a
mix of political and economic factors. Economic diplomacy includes the promotion of trade and
investments, management of aid and other financial flows, tourism promotion and
the management of all the regulatory issues that affect a country’s external
economic policy; it is handled by the foreign and the economic ministries, and
involves contributions by non-state actors.

The
policy on India’s economic diplomacy has undergone paradigm shifts from sheer
trade diplomacy, which was initiated in the post-independent period to
networking in 1980s and then to country promotion and engagement in
post-liberalized period. Thus during 1947 to 1984, India witnessed a
phenomenon in government-industry relations guided by regulation and control.
The year 1985 was the beginning of the U-turn and change, when Rajiv Gandhi,
the then Prime Minister, took a decision that a delegation from Confederation
of Indian Industry should accompany him on his first-ever State visit to Soviet
Union. Such evolution of relationship between government and industry was a
process which really never looked back. Later in the five years of P V
Narasimha Rao’s Prime Ministership, CII accompanied him on several occasions,
most prominently to Singapore and Vietnam in September 1994, heralding the
start of the Look East Policy of India and initiated strategic dialogues or
‘Track II Diplomacy’ mechanisms, which CII continues even today in a much
larger scale with many more nations.The year
1991 was crucial, as India’s
most aliened post-independent partner, Soviet Union collapsed and
disintegrated, Indian economic
diplomacy made
strategic shift with
focus on regional partnership. ‘Look East Policy’ was initiated to re-build her
relations with fast
growing Southeast
Asian Nations that was lost during colonial period. India urgently felt the
necessity of having new regional and sub-regional partners beyond the SAARC
zone. Today, as Look East policy has entered into its third phase, India’s
economic diplomacy remained remarkable by becoming a full dialogue partner with
ASEAN and by raising trade, tourism and FDI shares significantly.

Along strategic shifts, the conduct of economic diplomacy within government also
has become increasingly dispersed with various departments interfacing with
their foreign counterparts and seeking facilitation and support of country’s
Missions. Among the non-state actors, multinational corporations are now powerful
pressure groups with profound penetration into systems of international
economic policy formulation. Apart from this, research institutions, media,
environmental groups and other non-governmental organisations also influence
the shape of the international economic agenda. Such endeavours have given
impressive growth rate, high foreign exchange reserves, increasing exports,
rising foreign investment. India has established itself as a major global
player in information technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, telecom and
other areas and negotiated for greater market access for her products under the
Doha Development Round in the WTO and pursued strategy of forging trade and
commercial alliances in the form of bilateral and regional free trade agreements
and comprehensive economic partnership agreements. India’s contribution to the
world economic and financial architecture through various groupings like the
G-20, IBSA, SAARC, World Bank and IMF among others is well known. In this
scenario, the role of diplomats in facilitating and supporting the efforts of
the business community has become more pronounced.Through
dialogue, they need to actively reach out to investors and partner with other
organs of the government and the private sector to promote trade, foreign
investment and technology flows. There are many instances where the strategic dialogue
has been extraordinarily helpful in building and shaping mutual appreciation,
especially in Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and ASEAN. As the perceptions
about Indian policy are very often rooted in history of isolationist,
inflexible, low growth, anti-private sector, over-regulated, protectionist,
such dialogues enable these old perceptions to be addressed. India’s policy
attempt to facilitate economic diplomacy by expanding its role beyond
diplomatic services continues towards relevant areas like industry through
innovative methods by which people can come on deputation. Indian existing diplomatic
service is relatively small in size with 700 IFS cadre officials, which needs
to grow given the rising demand of economic diplomacy. On the public diplomacy
initiative of the ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Salman Khurshid mentions
that, ‘It is essentially an outreach to add to capital diplomatic instruments
and diplomatic exercise we take. It is to show what we are doing and making it
more effective and add different dimension as greater public participation
takes place.’

The journey towards such policy endeavours
needs to continue more vigorously amidst contemporary global economic crises, so
that India can sustain her domestic economy. Economic diplomacy also needs be a
powerful instrument to end age-old conflicts of cross-border terrorism, illegal
trade, trafficking, border and political disputes with her neighbouring nations;
and should usher hope for a new horizon with regional and sub-regional
cooperation. As two of her eastern neighbours Bangladesh and Myanmar are
transitioning, it is time for India to explore her economic diplomacy deeply within
its Look East Policy frame to outmanoeuvre China, resolve Northeast
geopolitical issue, and turn this entire security-sensitive region to a vibrant
economic hub with space for people to move without fear and with hope for
future.As ‘Hope
cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads
across the earth. For actually the earth has no roads to begin with….but when
many people pass one way, a road is made.’

Friday, 21 February 2014

As the foundation of the Panchayati Raj
system in India, the Gram Sabhas were envisaged as important institution for
deliberation and participation in the decision-making process by the people of
rural India. To popularise its role in planning local development initiatives,
the central government had declared 1999-2000 and 2009-2010 as Gram Sabha years.
However, over the years it has become clear that the Gram Sabhas have failed to
include local community voices in their functioning or to even represent them
effectively in their decision making.No
doubt, if Gram Sabhas functioned in the true spirit of the Constitution, rural
India would have a vibrant, transparent and accountable local government to address
its immediate needs. Therefore, it is essential to reflect on how effective is the
functioning of Gram Sabhas and account for the waning public faith and
participation in them.

My
field experiences from across Indian villages show that Gram Sabhas are not
functioning in accordance with the spirit of the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992. More
often than not, their functioning is controlled by the Sarpanch and Secretary and
the vested interests they represent rather than the concerns of the common
people. Under the law, it is mandatory to give prior notice to members to
attend the Gram Sabha meetings. But this procedure is not followed by many Gram
Panchayats. In fact, this is a tool in the hands of the dominant who directly
or indirectly control the Panchayats and use it to deliberately exclude the
common people from participatory political processes and in the process augment
their political, economic and social power. It is observed that the meeting
dates are fixed by the Central/State governments either to prepare a beneficiary
list for various schemes or to disseminate information on new schemes. Those
whose names are not in the list do not attend these meetings. In several instances
meetings are fixed during the peak agriculturalseason and as peasant and agricultural labour households cannot afford
to lose out on the agricultural wage employment, they tend to forgo Gram Sabha
meetings instead.Meetings are fixed on a
popular festival day, making it inconvenient for many to attend.In Rajasthan, one secretary is generally
incharge of three to four Gram Panchayats and it may well be the case that the
meetings of all the Panchayats are scheduled for the same day which would make
it very difficult for the secretary to be present in all meetings. When this
has happened, Gram Sabha meetings have had to be cancelled and rescheduled. But
it has been seen that even then the Secretary was not present. Disillusioned, people
lose interest in these meetings. It is a common practice that the Sarpanch
takes the signature of the people on a blank paper on proceeding details even
before the Gram Sabha meeting has been held. In many Gram Sabhas, candidates who lost the Panchayat
election or those from the opposing camp, actively disrupt the meetings. They
are often drunk when they come to the meetings and use unpleasant language to
abuse the Sarpanch. It is difficult for women to attend these meetings. A
common experience of people is that the Sarpanch, once elected, becomes distant
from the very people who elected him and moves closer to the Gram Panchayat Secretary
and block level officials. Henever makes public the details of the panchayat
operations, funds received from the block office etc.

The
traditional land-owning dominant castes are still strong in many villages.
These rural elites dominate the discussion on Gram Sabha meetings. The
marginalied and landless agricultural labourers who are dependent on dominant
castes for wage employment do not oppose them in Gram Sabha meetings. Moreover,
low public participation in Gram Sabhas is also due to lack of popular awareness,
lack of publicity, interference of local leaders, corruption, conflict among
members and the uncooperative attitude of bureaucrats.

The
National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) states
that, “the Gram Sabhas have been, by and large, given a peripheral role in the
Panchayat Acts. Consequently, common people do not find interest in attending
its meetings” (B P C Bose and M V S Koteswar: 2004:154). To make Gram Sabha
meetings successful, the venue and time may be so decided that it is to the convenience of
the majority.

The
emphasis has to be not so much on the number of participants as on the quality
of participation. Public faith can be restored only if the Gram Sabha decisions
are substantively and efficiently implemented by the higher tier of Panchayats
and respective State Governments. The report by Mani Shankar Aiyar also
recommended “Genuine PR should be based on participative democracy by not
concentrating power on a few representatives and putting in place the ultimate
accountability to the people through the Gram Sabha”(Towards Holistic
Panchayati Raj: 2013:551).

The
decisions of the Gram Sabhas are not binding on higher tiers of Panchayats.
Gram Sabhas are spending most of their time in disposing and discussing the
agendas of Central/State governments. There is a need to strengthening
functions of Gram Sabhas so that they may discuss local issues affecting their
day to day life and make local governance more participatory, transparent and
people friendly. Gram Sabhas may be given approving and sanctioning powers as
well as monitoring functions to allow Panchayats to become vibrant and dynamic
institutions. There is need to amend State Acts and make Gram Sabha
recommendations binding on Panchayats at higher level.

Thursday, 20 February 2014

This
is a perspective on the
interface between rural labour markets and village based dalit women in eastern
Uttar Pradesh (UP). These insights, drawn from fieldwork conducted in three
villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh in the late 2000s, can serve as a basis for
designing suitable policy interventions.

A
stark feature of the rural labour market is the gender and caste segmentation.
Barring isolated exceptions, dalits are concentrated at the bottom of the rural
labour hierarchy-in agriculture, brick kilns, construction and distress driven
petty self-employment and migrant work. Dalit men reflect high occupational
diversification away from agriculture. Accordingly, their income sources and
employment relations have been significantly delinked from the village.
However, dalit women continue to be held captive in the village economy and society
for a variety of reasons-responsibilities of own cultivation, domestic and care
economy; a patriarchal value system; increasing role in everyday household
reproduction in the face of male outmigration; delivering unfree labour to the
local elites on whom they are dependent for employment, credit etc. Moreover,
the village economy is largely agrarian in which the least paid and most
demeaning types of work are done by women. Therefore, dalit women left behind
in the villages are directly and to a greater extent than their male relatives
embedded in village based social, economic and political relations of
domination and subjugation which are underscored by intersecting caste, class
and gender identities.

However,
piece-meal transformations are unfolding in villages. In the case of UP, the
regional context of BSP has been an enabling factor as it has at least posed a
challenge to the traditional purity-pollution discourse, in removing the terror
of police from the minds of dalits and ensuring them hearing at the police
station, extending scholarships to students etc. Unfortunately however, BSP’s
politics of dignity has not managed to structurally combat dalit women’s
acceptance of their inferior status, their lack of confidence, their
marginalisation from economic and political freedoms enjoyed by dalit men etc.
Nonetheless, dalit women are gradually collectivising and protesting against
their social and economic exploitation. This is evident in their struggles for
better wage relations, in securing PDS ration, in filing complaints against
corruption etc. But these struggles do not pose a systemic challenge but seek
concessions within the existing order.

What
type of policy insights does such a scenario provide?

One
clear lesson is that agriculture continues to be the daily mainstay of dalit
women. As such, there is an urgent need to reorient growth strategy such that
it does not bypass agriculture and develops synergetic linkages with other
sectors to enable greater labour absorption in productive employment
opportunities. Policy response can no longer casually treat the gender
dimension of differentiation and exploitation and the structural inequalities
which are ruthlessly exploited in pursuit of accumulation. Moreover, the idea
of hitherto rural/agrarian labour needs to be reconceptualised considering it
is simultaneously involved in varied employment relations across geographically
dispersed production sites.

Government
interventions such as NREGA and widow/old pension scheme have had positive
spin-offs, acting as a crucial buffer against absolute poverty and destitution,
but these have also been used as tools by the local elite to build vote banks,
labour lobbies or to secure unfree labour. In this region, NREGA has failed to
counter the gendered division of labour. Even the petty pension amount is not
disbursed regularly without grease money which leaves a very vulnerable section
at the mercy of their families for food, health expenses and shreds their
dignity. Petty corruption has emerged as a major source of income and
accumulation by the local elite. On this front, the Lokpal Bill is definitely a
good beginning but again much depends on the implementation and social efforts
to enable the use of this legislation.

The
present policy emphasis on promotion of self-employment opportunities and
skilling does not seem to have had desired outcomes. The few women who had
acquired tailoring skills (seemingly the only skill women learnt), operated out
of their houses and had a smaller customer base. Since social relations
overshadowed economic transactions in such a setting, these women received less
than the market rate and often received delayed payment. In addition to the conceptual
and practical social barriers women faced in setting up as micro-entrepreneurs,
the demand for products coming from dalit households was also comparatively
low. Skill training should involve education about doing business and
developing backward and forward linkages. For a variety of reasons, skills are
not as strongly related to employability in the case of dalit women. In general
though, it is the case that despite significant government interventions in the
area of skills and entrepreneurial development, wage employment and not
self-employment is perceived as more important for household survival. This is
also because of overhead costs associated with self-employment, irregular and
fluctuating income flow etc.

Any
policy design on poverty has to contend with the fact that the poor are not a
homogenous group. They are embedded in multiple affiliations, are subject to
different compulsions and likely to be a polarised and contentious group. State
initiatives for poverty reduction are cornered by the relatively better-off or
those poor who are ‘tied’ or ‘loyal’ to the local elite. Rather than poverty
alleviation and asset creation, a vicious cycle of dependency underlies
attempts by the poor to access scarce resources and benefits. Moreover, poverty
is dynamic-economic and social shocks, occurring in quick succession, can force
even relatively better-off households into a worse-off position. The fieldwork
clearly points to a multi-dimensional understanding of poverty.

A
final point for consideration-if there are obvious limits to dalit politics
i.e. the subversion of authentic and effective politics of representation for
narrow sectarian gains, then are there alternate legitimate political and
social institutions or movements to ensure the inclusion and empowerment of
dalit women and other marginalised Indians who have been unjustly and
deliberately rendered mute.

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Multiplying big brands from all over the world with
marginal migrants lined up in the corner of the streets, Connaught Place is a hub of two
contradicting realities. In the midst of the concrete structures that stand
testimony to commercial capitalism, there are splashes of ethnic crafts. Right
across the busy market of Janpath, I met Sarasvati. Soaked in sweat and glaring
at my camera, I could gather that this was not the first time she was being
clicked. She sat with a pile of golden fabric that her husband had collected
from her village in Gujarat and she came to the city expecting a good bargain. And
it is these contradictions that pose some central questions. What has been the
government’s post-independence stance on industrialisation? Have the forces of
competition and mass production unleashed by globalisation caused much harm to
the culture and crafts sector than do good to India?

Liberalisation policies meant an end to the “License
Raj”- the government loosened its protectionism over the micro industries and
it marked a shift from crafts production to mass production. Late 1960’s saw
“green revolution”, which was the exogenous push from the government which led
to prosperity on both ends. Indian economy was liberalised in 1991, and an
absence of a national policy or an agenda for the crafts sector reduced it to a
secluded sector in India’s path to development.

The Handicrafts sector holds great promise, in terms
of export potential and income and employment generation. It is estimated that
crafts sector alone can employ 25 percent of country’s population. According to
the Tenth Plan sub group report, the sector contributed around 25 percent to
the GDP of the manufacturing sector. The carpet industry in India is the
largest exporter in the world in terms of volume. Interestingly, around 50 percent
of those employed in the sector are women.

The potential of the Indian craftsmen has not been fully
tapped. Indian crafts industry has been sub-optimally employed, and the
contribution of Indian handicrafts to the world exports is merely two percent.
The multiplicity of middlemen has rendered the supply chain complex. Weaver’s suicides
in various states, specifically Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, highlight the
need for immediate government response towards tapping the sector’s immense
potential.

The government, NGO’s and cultural as well as social
entrepreneurs have a long way to go to revive the sector. A major issue is that
of cluster identification. Since the sector is majorly unorganised, the data to
categorise the clusters (as defined by the MSME industry) is unavailable and no
clear methodology is formulated.

The silver lining is that there have been
legislations and continuing efforts to secure and expand the rights of the
craftsmen effectively. The Copyright Amendment Bill 2012, which entitles
lifelong royalty to artistes and not producers, has been a step in the right
direction to protect the rights of those in the creative sector. In order to
give effective protection to Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Traditional
Cultural Expression (TCE), the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual
Property and Genetic Resources (IGC) has been working to develop a legal
mechanism under which they will be recognised as intellectual property. This
would be a landmark move as it will establish ownership of communities
inheriting particular arts, crafts, medicine, designs and motifs and protect
any kind of misappropriation by others.

Can India not have its
own model of development, as unique as its culture?

Fair trade is an internationally recognised labelling
system monitored by German-based Fairtrade International, which offers
farmers in developing nations, who comply with certain social and environmental
standards, higher than the market prices for their products in international
markets. The label serves the two way purpose- ensuring the buyer of the
quality of the product as well as ensuring better prices to the primary
producers. Indian farmers have been a part of the European fair trade from past
twenty years.

In an interesting turn of events, the Indian farmers
have launched the Fairtrade Foundation India, a strategy working in Brazil,
which aims to capture domestic market in similar manner. Application of a fair
trade model to the crafts sector, with a central labelling/certification agency
could prove instrumental in setting up permanent structures for the sector’s revival.

Drawing heavily from writings of Marx, Joseph
Schumpeter gave the concept of “creative destruction”, standing for the
hypothesis that “capitalist economic development arises out of the destruction
of some prior economic order” and paves the way for a new one. The fall of
Indian handicrafts post technocratic mass production meant the fall of an
original economic order. Revival of the crafts sector is imperative, to
acknowledge and protect the efforts of the “skilled hands”, like Sarasvati’s, which
made India incredible.

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Half of India’s $1.85 million economy is
informal. Informal workers constitute more than 90% of the country’s workforce
and generate about 50% of the country’s national product. Yet, legal and policy
tools have failed to create an environment which promotes secure and productive
economic opportunities, labour rights and benefits and protection for these
workers.

International Labour Organization (ILO)
notes that the term 'informal economy' refers to all economic activities by
workers and economic units that are – in law or in practice – not covered or
insufficiently covered by formal arrangements. Informal workers are everywhere
– as cab drivers, domestic workers, waste pickers, vendors, cobblers, forest
workers, private security guards, construction workers etc. and despite their
contribution to the economy, they have been battling against their invisibility
as ‘workers’ and their concerns largely remain unaddressed. Their activities
are not included in the law, which means that they are operating outside the
formal reach of the law; or they are not covered in practice, which means that
– although they are operating within the formal reach of the law, it is neither
applied nor enforced.

A fundamental legal demand across all occupational
groups within the informal sector is that of obtaining recognition as workers,
social protection and regulation of working conditions as afforded by labour
law to other (formal) workers. Policies must also be framed to address the
varied concerns of different occupational groups based on the nature and
realities of their work and livelihood. For e.g., demands raised by forest,
fish workers and miners have largely revolved around protecting traditional
access to natural resources in a manner that ensures sustainable use,strengthening pricing policy for craftsmen,
transforming municipal laws to carve out spaces for urban vendors etc.

Recognition as ‘worker’

The contract of employment is the primary means through
which a person is recognised as an employee and is granted benefits and
protection. A major hurdle in identifying many informal workers is the absence
of an exclusive legal ‘employer-employee’ relationship established through an enforceable
written contract. In fact, most often, employment is mediated through
jobbers/contractors and is based on oral contract.

There is a need for a broader definition of ‘worker’ to
recognise those who fall outside traditional employer-employee relationship. An
expanded concept would include not just those engaged in final stages of
production or value addition, or those who work in what the labour law terms as
‘industry’, but also those engaged in collection of resources which constitute
vital inputs for these industries (forest workers, tailors etc.)

Internationally, there exist legal provisions for
informal working arrangements. Those, who do not enjoy an employee status
(sub-contractors or self-employed) have been accepted as “workers” in the 1996
ILO Home Workers Convention as well as in the 2002 International Labour
Conference Resolution and Conclusions on Decent Work and the Informal Economy.
Policymakers need to lobby for the idea that informal workers, though outside
an employment relationship based on a commercial contract, are entitled to basic
rights and enjoy what the ILO calls “decent work.”

Social protection and
regulation of working conditions

Of all
informal workers, domes­tic workers have been most successful in getting their
status as workers recognised under specific laws enacted by some states in
India and securing certain welfare measures.The enactment of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Unorganised Workers
Social Security Act, 2008, has the potential to cover all ‘workers’ in­cluding
the self-employed (both dependent and independent) for the purpos­es of
ensuring access to basic social security. However, the policies largely remain
confined to paper.

Even when informal workers are covered by labour law de jure, this alone
will not ensure that their position is immediately at par with formal workers.
Erratic working hours, abysmal working conditions and poorly demarcated work
spaces have meant that it is not possible to apply many of the minimum
standards contained in the labour laws to the majority of these workers.

There is an urgent need to bring these workers within the
purview of labour law or create alternative structures for social protection
and regulation of working conditions as per the standards set by labour law. A
related struggle is to ensure a decent and market price for their products
(craftsmen, rag-pickers etc.) i.e. setting minimum support prices for many such
occupational groups.

Political representatives and civil society groups must engage
in dialogue and formulate innovative strategies centring on law and policy
initiatives to address the core demands of this group – recognition as workers,
social protection and regulation of working conditions.

There is huge incentive for political representatives to
intervene in this area. Addressing the core demands of this group will have a
direct positive bearing on earnings andpoverty levels leading to economic well–being and growth.

Monday, 17 February 2014

In
the midst of talks about bringing electronic media under the regulatory
framework of Press Council of India, there is an urgent need to simultaneously consider
empowering the statutory body to be able to formulate and enforce a common code
of practice for journalists.

The
PCI was set up in 1966 with the objective of preserving the freedom of press
and improving and maintaining the standards of press in India. The PCI currently
functions under the Press Council (Amendment) Act of 1970 that majorly changed
provisions with regard to the selection and appointment of members in the
Council. It has five members from the Parliament- three from Lok Sabha and two
from Rajya Sabha-apart from the Chairman and 23 other members. Since
journalistic standards cannot be maintained without regulating journalistic
practices in electronic and social media, it is imperative that the PCI should
exercise regulatory authority over all mediums involved in news reporting and
publishing.

However,
without sufficient authority to penalise and take disciplinary actions against deviant
journalistic practices in print media, it is not equipped to tackle press excesses
effectively in other media as well. Merely admonishing malpractice and imposing
fines has proven to be insufficient to maintain journalistic standards within
the fraternity. The members of the Council should thus be empowered enough to
take disciplinary actions jointly against journalistic malpractices.

The
argument of a self-regulating press fails in the wake of rampant malpractices
including paid news, selective or fake reporting, extortion, blackmailing, etc.
Secondly regulation does not imply control without accountability.

Rather,
in order to avoid abuse and misuse of power vested in an independent regulatory
body, clear metrics or quantitative parameters can be used to determine the
degree of deviance by media firms. This includes particulars about funding
received by the media organisation from clients buying media space or time slot
for advertisements as well as ownership patterns in media. Also, maintaining records
of news coverage might also help in identifying interest groups involved in
malpractices like paid news.

For
any disciplinary action taken against any firm thus, definite parameters for
taking such an action need to be specified in written and made public
whatsoever to ensure transparency and accountability of the statutory body.

Influence of Cross Media
Ownership

Freedom
of expression comes with the space for multiple opinions and views. With cross
media ownership, where a conglomerate owns multiple channels of communication
like newspapers, electronic media and digital media, this freedom rather
shrinks since there is concentration of the circulation capacity of a
conglomerate to disseminate one opinion. Moreover, contrary to popular belief
of multiple views available from multiple sources, content is majorly
determined and shaped by news trends generally initiated by one source but
eventually gaining visibility in other sources as well with marginal
differences. While this might be constructive and useful in some cases, there
are chances of replicating a publicity gimmick that is used as a marketing
strategy by most advertising agencies. Therefore, one needs to examine as to what
inspires or rather what interests lead to publishing and circulation of a news
report.

Need for alternate modes of
Revenue generation

Smaller
newspapers and dailies struggle to survive in the market as the industry mostly
recovers costs and derives profit from advertisements. This implies that
smaller newspapers and dailies with poor revenues and lower ad rates have to
function with limited resources too, which in turn has an effect on the quality
of news reports.

Therefore,
while prescribing a common standard for the industry, there is a need to delve
into fixing a common ad rate subject to market fluctuations. Moreover, other
traceable and justifiable mediums of revenue generation can also be explored.While India can boast of a flourishing
newspaper industry at a time when markets are declining in the United States
and United Kingdom, one need not neglect another trend, that is, the growth of media
and entertainment marked by an increase in advertising spend. In many ways, the
growth of the former can be said to have played a role in contributing to the
latter phenomenon.

Clash of interests

In
terms of identification of interests in the media industry as such, there seems
to be contradictory forces operating simultaneously. In other words, a service
oriented philanthropic ideal and its practice co-exists with commercial
interests. Wherever the scale shifts media, by virtue of the space it occupies
in the process of dialogue and communication, cannot naively eschew
responsibility of the content produced and circulated.

Conclusion

Lastly,
media has to be honest in acknowledging that to be misinformed is worse than
being uninformed. Consequently, misinformation needs to be made liable to
prosecution through regulation from an independent regulatory body on the basis
of clearly formulated and defined metrics.

Thus,
in order to have any real impact on industry practices and standards, political
thrust- both within the PCI and on the Parliament floors- is required to prioritise
and empower the PCI first and then include electronic media within its ambit.

Friday, 14 February 2014

Virtual
currencies, a phenomenon triggered by technological developments and increased
use of internet has been gaining momentum. There are close to 70 digital
currencies in the world with a total market valuation of $15 billion (Rs.90,000
crores) out of which Bitcoin has the biggest share of $10 billion. India,
currently has no regulatory framework to reap the benefit of such Virtual
Currencies (VCs).

Bitcoin is a digital currency designed and implemented
by Japanese programmer Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Bitcoins are obtained through
mining which is done on powerful servers by solving solutions shared on
network. Users can send and receive payments using this decentralised and peer
to peer network. It has no intermediaries, which makes the process very fast
and efficient.All the transactions made
are recorded in a public ledger. This makes the whole process transparent which
enables to track even a smallest unit of the currency. Since the transaction
process only requires a unique address which is not linked to the identity, it
thus maintains the anonymity of the user. Its prices are determined by the
supply and demand of the market just like any other fiat currency

According to some experts, it can overcome the
limitations of traditional currencies that result from the monopolistic supply
and management by central banks. If there are more issuers of the currency the
demand for the money can be speculated more accurately eliminating the risk of
high inflation. On the other if currency is
open to competition it can guarantee a stable purchasing power and would
eliminate other less stable currencies from the market. The result of this
process of competition and profit maximisation would be a highly efficient
monetary system where only stable currencies would coexist.

In a short span
of three years, it has become one of the most expensive currencies of the
world. It is currently being traded at around $900, and there are 12 million
(57% of the eventual supply) of such coins in the market. The supply of Bitcoin
mimics the supply of gold. A finite supply of 21 million units of such coins is
expected to be produced by 2040. Many economists believe that it might be a
bubble but a bubble occur when assets are overpriced, since the fundamental
value of Bitcoin is still unknown it is too early to say it is a bubble.

The phenomenal
success of this model and extreme volatility of the prices has grabbed the eyes
of regulatory authorities around the world. The regulatory authority of India,
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently stated that it will not regulate any
virtual currency including Bitcoin and warned the people of the financial
sector as there are legal and security risks involved.

Main
concerns raised by RBI are:

·It has no intrinsic value like gold; they are mere
bits stored in the computer

·Its high volatility, a result of speculative
activities, is hindering its general acceptance as a means of payments for
on-line commerce.

·Since they are not created by or traded through any
authorised central registry or agency, there is no way to get back stolen
coins.

·There is no established framework for recourse to
customer problems / disputes / charge backs etc.

·Usage of VCs for illegal activities. Users subjected
to unintentional breaches of laws such as Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the
Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws. Most importantly in the absence of any
authentication from RBI the money cannot be transferred in the users’ account
hence making it less liquid.

The Reserve Bank
is currently examining the issues associated with the usage, holding and
trading of VCs under the extant legal and regulatory framework of the country,
including Foreign Exchange and Payment Systems laws and regulations. Income Tax
Department is also interested in imposing taxes on Bitcoin businesses in the
long run and is awaiting RBI’s clean chit. India’s indigenous digital currency
Laxmicoin is also waiting for a green signal from RBI to proceed.

A recent study
(2013) by Bank of America claims that Bitcoin has a potential to grow and give
a tuff competition to the traditional payment networks. Considering the
demographic changes and increasing internet crowd in India virtual currencies
can play a vital role in the e- commerce industry. Due to recent warnings from
RBI, many Bitcoin operators in India have suspended their operations-
temporarily or indefinitely. Any irrational approach without knowing its
economic consequences will send a negative signal to the business.

The
global economics platform has been aggressively debating complex questions-
‘Are virtual currencies capable of self regulation- free from government
intervention – or if government regulation is indispensable for their effective
management’. It is believed that the government intervention can stabilize its
value to some extent.

In the time when internet has become an unstoppable
force and economics has been experimenting with alternative models, the Bitcoin
phenomenon poses an urgent need for concrete government directions on its
stance. India can no longer afford to ignore the issue of VC. It is only with
clear understanding of the origin and the need of virtual currencies that India
can take a stand on the issue and fully tap the benefits of such e-payment
networks. Simply ignoring of an idea would not serve any purpose. It is perhaps
useful to have a detailed document by RBI on the viability of VCs in India.

Thursday, 13 February 2014

Kudumbashree,
an innovative mission for poverty eradication through women’s empowerment, is
one of the most successful programmes being implemented by the state of Kerala.
Kerala, a tiny state lying
in the south-west part of India, has been home to many development experiments.
Kudumbashree is one such experiment. Its mission is empowerment of
women through collectivisation i.e. organising them into self-help groups and
encouraging their entrepreneurial and other activities. The purpose of the mission is to ensure
the transformation of women from being passive recipients of public assistance
to being active leaders in development initiatives.

Kudumbashree
was the outcome of the collective experience gained from the many anti-poverty
programs of the past. Most of the well intentioned but centrally planned, rigid
and individual-oriented anti-poverty programs of the central and state government
had failed to bring about the desired results, mainly because they did not have
any scope for the involvement of the poor. They viewed the poor as
"resourceless" recipients of benefits. Launched by the Government of
Kerala in 1998 with a view to wipe out
absolute poverty from the state through concerted community action under the
leadership of local self governments, Kudumbashree todayis one of the largest women-empowering
projects in the country. The programme has 37 lakh members and covers more than
50% of the households in Kerala. The Kudumbashree initiative has succeeded in
addressing the basic needs of the less privileged women and in providing them a
more dignified life and a better future. The literal meaning of Kudumbashree is
prosperity (shree) of family (Kudumbam). Kudumbashree differs from conventional
programmes in that it perceives poverty not just as the lack of money, but also
as the deprivation of basic rights. The poor need to find a collective voice to
claim these rights.There
are two distinguishing characteristics to Kudumbashree which set it apart from
the usual SHG model of empowerment. The first one is its universality of reach.
From its very inception Kudumbashree has attempted to bring every
poor woman in the state within its fold, as a consequence of which today
Kudumbashree is present in every village panchayat and municipality, and in nearly every
ward, colony and hamlet. The sheer spread is spectacular, and it is only
because the local community of women drive the system that it has managed to
persevere. The second characteristic is the scope of community interface in
local governance. The functioning of Kudumbashree is tied up to the development
initiatives of the local government be it for social infrastructure, welfare or
right based interventions or for employment generation. From food security to
health insurance, from housing to enterprise development, every development
experience depends on Kudumbashree to provide the community interface.

The
grassroots of Kudumbashree are neighbourhood groups (NHG) that send
representatives to the ward level area development societies (ADS). In turn, the
ADS sends its representatives to the community development societies (CDS)
which completes the unique three tier structure of Kudumbashree. Today, there
are 1.94 lakhs NHGs, over 17,000 ADSs and 1061 CDSs in Kudumbashree. In
contrast with the previous poverty eradication programmes, there are no
specific financial and physical targets set for Kudumbashree. Kudumbashree
practices a process approach and not a project approach.

As
the mission reaches its 16th year, Kudumbashree has successfully
made deep inroads into various sections of Kerala’s society and today stands as
a role model for other states in the country for women empowerment. Through its efforts to engage women in civil society
and in development issues and opportunities, Kudumbashree, in association with
the local self government units of Kerala, is charting out new meaning and
possibilities for local economic development and people centric governance

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

A roof over the head
is a basic right of every human being. For those who do not have one, it is a

dream. Home does not only provide protection, it also has symbolic significance
in a person’s life. In addition to security, owning a house adds to the status,
dignity and affects the social, physical and psychological well being of a
person.

India, with its
predominantly rural populace, faces a unique challenge in addressing adequate
housing for all. The XIIth five year plan has estimated the current
rural housing shortage at 44 million houses, out of which 90 per cent of the
rural housing shortage are in the BPL categories. Yet India does not have a
Rural Housing Policy!

Mismatch between
the availability ofhousing stock and
number of households is one aspect of housing inadequacy. The other aspect
relates to the mismatch between the desired and actual quality. Kuchcha or semi –pucca house with thatched roofs, mud walls, no cooking space and poor
ventilation describe the living conditions of a poor man. According to the
National Family Health Survey (2000), only 19% of the rural population lives
in pucca houses, while the
remaining live in kaccha and semi-pucca houses. Poor living conditions have
direct bearing on the health of the rural poor.

The Housing
Policy of 1998 which is supposed to address the housing needs of both the rural
and the urban population has shown considerable bias towards the urban
needs.It is futile to challenge the
fact that the needs, aspirations and demography of the urban and the rural are dissimilar.To ensure parity in development, the housing
needs of the rural areas have to be addressed separately which is possible only
when India has an exclusive Rural
Housing Policy.

Government
initiative in rural housing has been through the subsidy based Indira Awas Yojna Scheme (IAY) and
similar other schemes. There are also state wise housing schemes targeted to
different target groups like the SCs, STs and BPL families, such as, Jharkhand
Government’s Birsa Awaas Yojana and
Siddho-Kanu Awas Yojna, Rajasthan’s Mukhya Mantri Gramin BPL Awaas Yojana,Tamil
Nadu’sKaliagnar Housing Scheme and two
schemes in Karnataka namely Basava Vasathi Yojana
and Ambedkar Housing Scheme,
to name a few.

All
these housing schemes vary in terms of the target audience, implementing agencies,
funding opportunities and unit cost of the house. However the participation of
all the States has not been equal. In some cases, States do not have separate
State level agencies for taking up the Rural Housing Programmes, in other cases,
funds taken from HUDCO are passed on as loans to beneficiaries but the cost is
ultimately borne on the budget as the recovery rate is very poor.Similarly the IAY scheme which has been
beneficial in several ways, have many shortcomings like inadequacy of space,
unit cost, selection of beneficiaries, ownership issues, lack of people’s and
other stakeholders participation. Building the capacity of beneficiaries to
build their house and enabling them to construct disaster resistant houses have
been ignored under the IAY. The housing programmes
have loopholes and have not been able to achieve its targets to reduce the gap
between the demand and supply of housing units.

Apart
from the physical structure of a house, what people also require are –
electricity, sewage system, toilets and safe drinking water. Thus there is a need to have a comprehensive
Rural Housing Policy that would address the shortage of dwelling units
along with the bleak habitat conditions of rural India by providing decent and affordable
housing to the rural poor, linking Housing Finance Institutions and Micro Finance
Institutions with the housing programmes, reorganising delivery mechanisms and bringing
legal reforms to facilitate access to land titles for the poor. The Policy
should focus on strengthening the capacities of the people living in rural areas
and ensure that the Panchayats are successfully engaged in implementing the
housing schemes. In addition, the housing policy should promote the development
of micro enterprises that would open employment opportunities for villagers.The
Rural Housing Policy should not only meet the demand of dwelling units but also
make sure that these dwelling units are of live-able quality and resistant to
nature’s susceptibility. Promotion of locally available environment friendly
construction materials and technology should also be an integral part of the
Policy.

Investment
in rural housing will have a high multiplier effect on income and employment of
the rural people, therefore reinforce Government’s strategy towards inclusive
economic growth. It is estimated that overall employment generation in the
economy due to additional investment in the housing/construction is eight times
the direct employment. (IIM-Ahmedabad Study, 2000)

As
rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi “India lives in her villages” and “If the villageperishes India will perish too”, therefore
only an integrated Rural Housing Policy can achieve desired results in building
India of our dreams.